McDonald’s plans move to Fairview Centre

Operations at this McDonald's restaurant in Fairview Park will relocate to Fairview Centre later this year. (West Life photo by Kevin Kelley)

A new McDonald's restaurant will be constructed at the western end of Fairview Centre, on the spot where CVS Pharmacy once stood. (West Life photo by Kevin Kelley)

By Kevin Kelley

Fairview Park

The McDonald’s restaurant is planning a move east down Lorain Road to the Fairview Centre shopping center.

The owner of the McDonald’s franchise, Tri-Arch Inc., has reached a deal with Lamar Companies, the owner of Fairview Centre, said Rob Berner, the city’s director of development. Berner announced the news at the Feb. 17 Fairview Park City Council meeting.

A newly built McDonald’s restaurant will be constructed at the western end of Fairview Centre, on the spot where CVS Pharmacy once stood.

Steve Payne, whose Tri-Arch company owns and operates 17 McDonald’s locations in Northeast Ohio, said he hopes construction will begin before September. The plan, he said, is to open by late fall. The current McDonald’s will remain open until then, Payne said.

“We look forward to staying in Fairview,” Payne told West Life. “Finding property in Fairview was a little tough.”

Payne has a personal connection to the Fairview McDonald’s. He started working there in 1966 as a 16-year-old. He also worked as a teen at the McDonald’s in North Olmsted.

The new McDonald’s will have a side-by-side drive-thru lane, with three drive-thru windows – one for payment, one for food distribution and one for special orders.

Space limitations at the restaurant’s current site made such expansion impossible, Payne said. Parking was also limited, he added.

Payne also said he anticipates hiring an additional 10 to 15 employees when the new restaurant opens. Around 50 workers are employed at the current location, he said.

Payne will lease the space at Fairview Centre. McDonald’s owns the property at the restaurant’s current location.

Several requests for signage variances for the new McDonald’s have been filed with the city. Those requests will be on the agenda of the March 10 meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals.

The requests seek variances allowing additional square footage of signage, beyond what is permitted in municipal regulations. McDonald’s is requesting variances for two directional signs and one monument sign. The shopping center seeks variances for four monument signs. The additional signage is necessary, the variance application states, because of the unique configuration of the site. The intent of the signage will be to draw some traffic to McDonald’s from West 220th Street in addition to that coming from Lorain Road, the application states.

Fairview Park building Commissioner Sel Kulcsar said the city has no opposition to the variance requests.

Plans for the new McDonald’s will also be on the agenda of the March 19 meeting of the city’s planning and design commission, Payne said.